Lance Wilder Explained

Lance Wilder
Birth Name:Lance Wilder
Birth Date:7 May 1968[1]
Birth Place:Lowell, Massachusetts, United States
Education:Chelmsford High School
Alma Mater:Rhode Island School of Design
Occupation:Animator

Lance Wilder is an American animator and longtime background designer on The Simpsons, joining during the show's second season and having done work on roughly 600 episodes. He also served as background design supervisor from 1993 to 2003 and worked as the background design lead on The Simpsons Movie. His other credits as a background designer include The Critic, Mission Hill, King of the Hill, Duckman, and Rugrats.

Biography

Wilder was born in Lowell, Massachusetts and raised in the nearby town of Chelmsford and graduated from Chelmsford High School in 1986. Various landmarks from the area where he grew up were later incorporated into his design work on The Simpsons, such as the Springfield Town Hall, which directly takes its design from the Chelmsford Public Library.[2]

He is an alumnus of the Rhode Island School of Design.[3] After graduating in 1990, he moved to Los Angeles and was hired as a background designer for The Simpsons immediately despite no previous experience in animation, with his first assignment being "The Raven" segment of the original "Treehouse of Horror" episode.[4] Wilder was responsible for the infamous "Squirrel House" design from "Treehouse of Horror V", which took him several days to draw only to be cut from the final episode.[5] He was also featured in the 2000 BBC documentary The Simpsons: America's First Family. He received an Annie Award nomination in 2013.

Filmography

!Year!Title!Role!Notes
1990–presentThe SimpsonsBackground designer (417 episodes)
Background design supervisor (255 episodes)
Animator (1 episode)
1990Bart Simpson: Do The BartmanBackground designerMusic video
1991RugratsBackground layout artist (5 episodes)
1994DuckmanBackground designer (1 episode)
1994The CriticBackground designer (7 episodes)
1996Quack PackKey background stylist (2 episodes
background artist (1 episode)
1997King of the HillBackground designer (1 episode)
1998-2000Histeria!Background designer (17 episodes)
2000-2002Mission HillBackground designer (8 episodes)
2007The Simpsons MovieBackground design lead

References

  1. Web site: Simpsons Designer Shining His Light in Hollywood. Christian Broadcasting Network.
  2. Web site: Lance Wilder – The Merrimack Valley Connection to the Simpsons. Merrimack Valley Magazine.
  3. Web site: Lance Wilder: Life at The Simpsons Is Lots of Fun.... Crossmap.
  4. Web site: Faith in the Foreground: Lance Wilder. Crosswalk.com.
  5. Reardon, Jim (2005). The Simpsons The Complete Sixth Season DVD commentary for the episode "Treehouse of Horror V" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.